This invention relates in general to sphygmomanometers and more particularly, to an accessory for application upon conventional blood pressure cuffs to permit the patient to apply same.
With the ever increasing awareness of the implications of the relationship between a patient's blood pressure and his state of health, there has been an ever continuing aim to make it possible for the individual patient to determine his blood pressure without the necessity of seeking the assistance of another person, or of having to make periodic visits to a clinic or doctor's office. The placement of the usual cuff about the patient's limb, such as, normally, the upper arm overlying the brachial artery, has required the utilization of at least two hands, and with the heretofore conventional sphygmomanometer, the positioning of the same has rendered the hand of the arm upon which the cuff is being mounted substantially useless so that the individual patient was helpless to effect his own reading since the cuff could not be manipulated by a single hand.
To overcome this problem there have been numerous efforts to develop blood pressure measuring devices which are specially constructed for one-hand mounting. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,129 there is disclosed a cuff comprising an arm-encircling band utilizing a slide fastener to permit limb encirclement.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,927, the particular cuff is designed to embody a spiral clip which is prestressed and promotes holding of the cuff in position so that the user can effect an appropriate measurement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,734 departs from the conventional indicating device, and includes novel pressure switches, obviating the incorporation of the usual aneroid manometer and, thus, simplifies the determination of the systolic-diastolic pressures without utilization of the services of another individual.
The Raczkowski U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,337 shows another form of sphygmomanometer cuff which may be applied by the individual patient without assistance and incorporates elastic bands for encircling the particular limb when inserted into the cuff loop within which the bands are located.
Thus, such prior efforts have been directed to developing sphygmomanometers which integrally embody expedients for positioning the cuff in order that determination may be made on a self-monitoring basis. Such developments have necessarily been costly by requiring a complete reconstruction, rather than a consideration of means for adapting pre-existing blood pressure cuffs for ease of application by an individual without the necessity of extensively altering the basic construction involved.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an accessory for blood pressure cuffs as constituents of sphygmomanometers which may be easily and readily applied thereon without altering the involved operating components.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an accessory of the character stated which, in actuality, may be applied upon the particular cuff by the individual patient so that marked economy is effected.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an accessory of the character stated which is extremely inexpensive and durable in usage; and which, furthermore, is quite easily manipulated by the patient so that no particular extensive instructional efforts are required.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an accessory of the character stated which does not cause any alteration whatever in the manner of blood pressure measurement by the sphygmomanometer involved so that a patient may continue with the measurement system with which he has become most familiar.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an accessory of the character stated which assures the patient of complete independence of any other individual in effecting blood pressure measurement and thereby allows of easily effected monitoring programs which are quite often requisite in providing necessary data for the treatment in question.